{"title":"Pierre Boulez","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePierre Boulez was a French composer, conductor, writer, and organizer of institutions. Born on March 26, 1925 in Montbrison, France, he studied with Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire from 1942 to 1945. Boulez inherited Messiaen's concern with rhythm, non-developing forms, and extra-European music along with the Schönberg tradition of Leibowitz. His early works were intense and disruptive, reflecting the clash of these influences. Boulez became a leader of the European avant-garde and created key postwar works such as \"Le marteau sans maître\" (1954). In addition to his creative output, he also had a successful career as a conductor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the mid-1960s, Boulez began appearing widely as a conductor and held positions as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1971-1974) and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (1971-1978). However, his creative output declined during this time. He focused on conducting while working on three big aleatory works inspired by Mallarmé but only completed one definitively finished work - \"Rituel\" for orchestra (1975).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSince the mid-1970s, Boulez has concentrated on his work as director of the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique\/Musique in Paris where he oversees a computer studio. One of his main works\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"conducts-arnold-schoenberg","title":"Conducts Arnold Schoenberg","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe collection \u003ci\u003ePierre Boulez Conducts Arnold Schoenberg: The Complete Columbia and Sony Recordings\u003c\/i\u003e is a comprehensive box set featuring the renowned conductor Pierre Boulez interpreting the works of Arnold Schoenberg. This set includes a variety of Schoenberg’s compositions, such as “Gurre-Lieder,” “Moses und Aron,” “Verklärte Nacht,” and \"5 Orchestral Pieces\". This is a budget-priced, x13 CD box-set. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sony Classical","offers":[{"title":"CDx13","offer_id":50446324433227,"sku":"2210107","price":44.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Pierre_Boulez_Conducts_Schoenberg_14a7c22b_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727057521"},{"product_id":"wagner-der-ring-des-nibelungen","title":"Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe unrivalled Bayreuth Centenary Ring by Boulez\/Chéreau is now released on Blu-ray, remastered in HD-quality. The opera production sent ripples through art and society even before the curtain was lifted. Leaflets were distributed, signatures were collected and musicians left the orchestra pit in disgust, all because of disagreements over the bold new interpretation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle by conductor Pierre Boulez. The festival hired 31-year-old film and theatre director Patrice Chéreau, a relative unknown. Chéreau’s submitted concept for the multi-part, many hours long Ring Cycle had fitted on a single typewritten page. Once hired, he had just four months to prepare the monumental dramatic work. The Centenary Ring was a fulfilment of Richard Wagner's dictum that the Ring Cycle should represent a musical synthesis of the arts. With the staging, set design and lighting, costumes, musical interpretation and, last but not least, the exceptional singing of the numerous soloists and choir, a legend was born. When the curtain came down, the Franco-German project was already being celebrated as a musical triumph, and in time the production would be celebrated as an event of the century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePlus BR5: The Making of the Ring for the first time on one additional Blu-ray Video Disc. In English with subtitles in French, Spanish, Japanese, German The 60pp booklet includes full tracklistings and two texts in E\/G, including a stunning in-depth analysis of work and music by Pierre Boulez himself, written for the original production.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Deutsche Grammophon","offers":[{"title":"CD | x5","offer_id":50458819756363,"sku":"1157627","price":119.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/14727b5c-ceef-47b5-ae61-455098096a6e_thumbnail_4096.png?v=1727214300"},{"product_id":"composer-conductor-enigma","title":"Composer, Conductor, Enigma","description":"\u003cp\u003eFour-disc box set presentation is an anthology of \u003cem\u003ePierre Boulez's\u003c\/em\u003e early compositions; complex, radically new and quite ferociously uncompromising. Such fearless, notoriously demanding works as the second \"\u003cem\u003ePiano Sonata\u003c\/em\u003e\" may be heard alongside the gorgeous ultra-modernist exoticism of \"\u003cem\u003eLe Marteau sans maître\u003c\/em\u003e\" and \"\u003cem\u003ePli selon pli\u003c\/em\u003e\".\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThese breathtakingly ambitious works are complemented by the first recordings of \u003cstrong\u003eBoulez\u003c\/strong\u003e as conductor, made at the \u003cem\u003eDomaine musical\u003c\/em\u003e, a society he formed in Paris during the mid- ‘50s to provide a platform both for modernist pieces by the likes of Webern, Messiaen, and Stockhausen and works which had played a vital role in the evolution of music by such composers as Debussy and Bartok.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs a conductor \u003cstrong\u003eBoulez\u003c\/strong\u003e flew high and fast, engaged as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic and as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra by William Glock, Controller of Music at the corporation, and fervent new music enthusiast: “\u003cstrong\u003eBoulez's\u003c\/strong\u003e ear was fabulous. It was as though he was attached by a hundred strings to every member of the orchestra.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"El","offers":[{"title":"CD | x4","offer_id":50459126399307,"sku":"1145275","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/dc2341ac-b271-41f1-a5a9-b875cbe1aea1_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727217641"},{"product_id":"the-composer-edition-centenary","title":"The Composer Edition (Centenary)","description":"\u003cp\u003e26 March 2025 will be the centenary of the birth of the great composer, conductor and music theorist Pierre Boulez.  To mark the occasion, Decca France reissues the beautiful 13-disc treasury from 2013. Produced entirely under the composer's supervision, including in the choice of performances, \u003ci\u003ePierre Boulez: The Composer\u003c\/i\u003e presents a survey of the works he considered representative of his compositional art, and includes a 252pp booklet with comprehensive notes on each work together with commentary from the composer.  Now reissued with new artwork in the style of DG’s Conductor Edition, the two complimentary sets are an homage to a musical icon who was a pioneer in every sphere of musical activity and a thinker of profound and penetrating originality.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Deutsche Grammophon","offers":[{"title":"CDx13","offer_id":51149478756683,"sku":"2241056","price":74.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/pierreboulez_eaeb6f04_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1737727947"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_de33bd08_thumbnail_4096_9a0c2cb0-61cc-43e8-8295-1f3e9c1754ab.jpg?v=1727057504","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/pierre-boulez.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}